Audio ClassicsÒ Archive


ARTHUR HOPKINS PRESENTS: OLD-TIME RADIO AND BROADWAY

Written by Martin Grams, Jr.

 
When Arthur Hopkins ‘presents,’ that hackneyed old verb musters up a dignity.  His goods are worth looking at.”  So wrote the New York Times in 1930, fourteen years before Arthur Hopkins Presents premiered over NBC.  The general title of the series of dramas was not worth looking at, because on radio you could not see them, but according to radio critics, were mighty well worth hearing.  For it was a treasure chest of drama over the most distinguished of living American theatrical producers presiding, with the keen cooperation of Wyllis Cooper, who made the radio adaptations, and Wynn  Wright, who directed them.  The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) honored itself and the public with such a project.
 
There had, of course, been other radio series that revives the great or at least worthy works of the stage in sixty-minute productions.  None that comes to mind did it so well as this program.  Let it be admitted at once that merely hearing a play could never give the listener the complete satisfaction of hearing and seeing one, especially if they first met it in the theater and cherished the memory of it in its entirety.  Granted, too, that the individual listener’s enjoyment was different form, and less intense than, that of the spectator in a crowd, who derives added pleasure from that of the people around him.  The fact remains that the plays Arthur Hopkins and his colleagues brought to the air have been singularly rewarding; that they not only accepted the limitations of radio but, in a sense, capitalized on them.
 
You will observe, for instance, that they were presented as radio, not as pseudo-theater.  There is no elaborate setting of the stage, because it was one of the rules of radio that the listener did his own scenic designing according to the power of his imagination.  And because this is entertainment, and not a course in literature, Arthur Hopkins in his brief forward says something about the performer or author – Katherine Hepburn of “The Philadelphia Story,” Thornton Wilder of “Our Town” – but seldom much about the play.  The listener was flattered by not being told what to think of what he is about to hear.  The play simply started, and thereafter it stood on its dialogue and its performance, and casts such a spell as it could.
 
For, in a curious way, the enforced simplicity of radio production has a certain affinity with Arthur Hopkins theories of theater direction.  Many years before, in the credo entitled “How’s Your Second Act?” he declared war on “the prepared exits, the speeches at the door, the exits laughing, exits sobbing, exits hesitating, the standing in the doorways to watch someone off so that any applause they may receive would not be interfered with.”  He denounced “all gesture that is not absolutely needed, all unnecessary inflection and intonings, the tossing of heads, the flickering of fans and kerchiefs . . . all the million and one tricks that have crept into the actor’s bag.”
 
It did not always work, his director’s theory of “unconscious projection.”  Hopkins produced more than one play which lacked the substance, and sometimes the cast, that could meet such a challenge.  But the best of them did meet it, plays like “Redemption,” “The Jest,” Eugene O’Neill’s “Anna Christie” and “The Hairy Ape,” “Machinal,” Philip Barry’s “Paris Bound” and “Holiday,” and needless to say, the great Shakespearean productions with John Barrymore.  How deliberately Hopkins was applying his old rules to a new medium would be hard to say, but it would be surprising only if they were not in the back of his mind.  In part, as noted, the straight line in which the productions move is of the essence of radio. They have no other choice.  But if one was to listen carefully to the broadcasts, they would note that they avoid also the meretricious little tricks that radio had acquired through the years – the phony sound effects, the contrived mechanics, the stilted diction.  That would be the Hopkins way.
 
It is, naturally, to the great advantage of the series that it consists of the tried and true, and that the plays were performed by gilt-edged casts, including such players as Frank Craven, Katherine Hepburn and Pauline Lord recreating roles they first played on the stage.  By the same token, plays and players must meet the standard and the expectation their reputations have evoked before the radio curtain rises.  To many listeners it seemed that they had done so with exhilarating success.
 
Amid the hurly-burly of Broadway he had never been ashamed to speak of art.  Indeed, he had insisted upon it, with the courage of an experimentalist and the high optimism of a man of good-will.  He envisioned, he went on to say, a radio repertoire of fifty plays going across the country to millions who had never heard them and might never hear them otherwise; inspiring new artists and community theaters; keeping the flame aglow.  “After all,” he said, “in the beginning was the word.”
 
Sadly, the program, amid all the talent involved, and the critics’ words of praise, it is agreeable to report that most listeners seemed to agree favorably.  They had a little something to say, though, about the hour at which that notable dramatic series was broadcast, nor could you blame them for being pretty annoyed.  It was an unholy hour at which to ask the average citizen to sit down at his receiving set and prepare to listen for sixty minutes.
 
Like The Lux Radio Theatre, it did not seem like sixty minutes, such is the spell created by the plays and players. But it is after 12:30 am, EST when the curtain rang down, and a vast number of people for whom this would have been one of the major radio events of the week almost certainly heard it seldom, if at all.  As the program moved westward across the country it was aired at a more convenient hour.  10:30 in Chicago, 9:30 in Denver, etc. – but in the densely populated areas of the East its public, whatever it was, should have been larger by the first few months.
 
The reason is, of course, that it was an unsponsored show, and that a sustaining program had small chance to acquire a full hour of choice or even fair time on a network.  The Hopkins project is not the only sufferer.  The Author’s Playhouse at 11:30 pm on Friday nights, the Sinfonietta and Invitation to Music on Tuesday and Wednesday at the same hour on Mutual and ABC had clearly been shunted off into a non-paying segment of the broadcasting day.  Supported by cash on the line, they and a parcel of others would be moved to a place on the schedule where they would command an audience worthy of their appeal.  It was too bad.  It also raised anew a few queries regarding the old and never resolved definition of what constitutes the public interest, convenience or necessity.
 
To these queries the broadcasting industry’s standard reply is that while radio moves through the air it does not live on it, and that it must be paid for by commercial programs, unless there is to be a subsidized system that few American listeners have ever shown any sign of wanting.  There is something in this argument, even to the point of justifying the lugubrious but lucrative soap operas that “carry” so many infinitely finer, and less popular, attractions.  To the average listener, this still did not make sense.  He would continue to want to know why such a program as Arthur Hopkins Presents, which is worth any two consecutive half-hour sponsored items, should be hidden away in the middle of the night; or, if it must stay there in its “live” form, why it cannot be repeated in transcription.  The broadcasters were so busy making more money than they ever had made that they probably have not time to explain this, but sooner or later they will have to make a real reply, if only for the sake of appearances.
 
The following is a rare article written by Arthur Hopkins, that has never been reprinted since it’s initial magazine publication on July 30, 1944.
 
LOOKING FORWARD, TOWARD A PEOPLE’S THEATER
Written by Arthur Hopkins.
 
For twenty years the commercial theater in America has been steadily contracting.  It has finally reached a point where new York has practically ceased to exist as a center of theater and culture.  Instead, Broadway is becoming more and more exclusively an amusement center.  And just as it is no longer correct to say that all good plays ultimately find production in New York.  For much of our great dramatic sustenance – there have been pathetically few adult contributions in recent seasons – so it is no longer correct to say that all good plays ultimately find production in New York.  For much of our great dramatic literature does not come under the head of amusement; it has a much deeper impact both on the theater and its audience.
 
The decline in quality of our local stage has brought with it a decline in the quality of its playgoers.  Discerning audiences can only be built by mature plays.  Audiences too long denied, either depart or become, as trivial as the shoddy they witness.
 
Why is our commercial theater suffering from its present state of dramatic malnutrition?  Principally because of its economic burdens – oppressive real estate taxes, arduous union conditions, the natural requirement that a commercial enterprise show a profit.  It is being starved by production costs that prohibit that venturesome, often doubtful, experimentation which has been a great source of the theater’s vitality.
 
Great playwrights of the past got a hearing because the financial hazards then were not so great and could, on occasion, be disregarded.  Today not the experimental play but the script with the most obvious box-office and picture possibilities finds ready investors.  Those requirements would have sentenced many of the world’s great dramatists to oblivion.  Imagine an unknown Ibsen, Strindberg, Chekhov, Shaw or O’Neill timorously launching a script on today’s appraising market!
 
This is not to predict the imminent death of the theater, so frequently prophesied by pessimists with little understanding of its basic vitality.  In many other periods of its history the theater was equally exploited, vulgarized and outraged, but its virtues were not destroyed then; nor are they being destroyed today.  Even now the demand for the theater is growing as the means for supplying it are diminishing – growing far beyond the capacity of Broadway to satisfy it.
 
The theater will not die because it is the bread of the spirit, the staff of the inner life.  It is essential to the continued expansion of our culture because of its power to form the thinking and the character of the people.
 
Those of us who were fortunate enough to sit in the galleries nearly fifty years ago and see the great of that day, know how deeply and permanently our youthful minds were effected by rich examples of human dignity, courage, graciousness, sacrifice, geniality, beauty and truth.  The most unforgettable week of my life is wrapped in five consecutive nights at Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue Opera House when I saw Olga Nethersole in different plays – “Carmen,” “Camille,” “Sappho,” “Denise” and “The Wife of Scarli.”  This was indeed a period of feasting, and the gallery was truly heaven!
 
My greatest regret for the young people of today is that they cannot have my youthful theater enrichment. The greatest present service any of us can perform for them and for the American theater is to demonstrate the need of the theater as a cultural force in our growing civilization.
 
Russia learned this lesson early.  To the everlasting credit of Lenin, one of his first appointments in a bewildered and threatened experiment was that of a Minister of Education, whose chief duties included the establishment of theater groups throughout the shattered empire.  Lenin ordered the drama, opera and the ballet to be made more fully a part of the people’s lives.
 
This policy was doubtless more political than cultural, but the essential point is that Lenin recognized the tremendous cultural and civilizing influence of the theater.  This is an idea that probably would startle our political leaders, many of whom look with disdain on such “tom-foolery.”  The limited view our own Government has of the theater was exemplified in the pathetic WPA theater project.
 
Administered with any desire to make a contribution of lasting value, the WPA might easily have created fifty permanent community theaters that by this time would be operating on a self-sustaining basis.  When this opportunity was pointed out as the project was being formed, we were told that it was not a theater project but merely a means of providing employment.  It brilliantly accomplished its little aims, at a cost of more than twenty million dollars and without leaving a single trace of its existence.
 
What do we want our people of the future to believe in, to respect and cherish, not only politically but in their attitudes toward life and the people about them?  Whatever it is, it can be impressed upon them, young and old alike, by plays whether in the theater, radio or pictures.  This must be the purpose, the new meaning, of the American theater.  It cannot continue to contract.  It must expand, for if the theater is not brought to the people they will surely make it for themselves.
 
 
Perhaps this is why Arthur Hopkins chose to bring the stage dramas he produced in the past, to the radio medium.  A new opportunity to introduce the rewards of stage theatrics to a market of radio listeners unable, for whatever reason, to make the trip to the big city and buy their tickets.  The following is a broadcast log of each and every episode aired on Arthur Hopkins Presents, with deep appreciation to the late Vic Girard, who helped along with the research.
 
Of the thirty-five episodes that aired, only 32 episodes are known to exist in circulation.  The entire program was heard on Wednesday evenings from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 a.m. EST (with only one exception, the premiere broadcast, which aired an hour earlier from 10:30 to 11:30 p.m., EST.)  Originally, the program was to premiere on the 12th of April, but due to Hopkins’ busy schedule, the program premiered on the 19th of April.  Sadly, two plays Hopkins originally intended to have dramatized, previous stage hits “Paris Bound” and “What Price Glory?” were scripted but never performed on the series before the program went off the air.
 
EPISODE #1    “OUR TOWN”    Broadcast on April 19, 1944
            Starring:  Mary Patten as Emily                      Howard Smith as Dr. Gibbs
            John Thomas as George                        Frank Craven as the narrator
            Evelyn Varden as Julia Gibbs                  Helen Carew as Myrtle Webb
            Thomas W. Ross as the editor                     Philip Coolidge as the milkman
            Based on the stage play by Thornton Wilder, adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
            Directed by Herbert Rice.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story:  Pulitzer Prize-winning drama in three acts by Thornton Wilder, produced and published in 1938, considered a classic portrayal of small-town American life.  Set in Grover’s Corners, N.H., the play features a narrator, the Stage Manager, who sits at the side of the unadorned stage and explains the action.  Through flashbacks, dialogue, and direct monologues the other characters reveal themselves to the audience.  The main characters are George Gibbs, a doctor’s son, and Emily Webb, daughter of a newspaper editor.  The play concerns their courtship and marriage and Emily’s death in childbirth, after which she and other inhabitants of the graveyard describe their peace.  Considered enormously innovative for its lack of props and scenery and revered for its sentimental but at bottom realistic depiction of middle-class America, Our Town soon became a staple of American theater.
 
            Trivia, etc.  Varden, Carew, Ross, Coolidge and Craven reprised their roles from the original production, which premiered in New York at Henry Miller, and ran a total of 336 performances.  Emily was originally created by Martha Scott on stage.  Jed Harris was the producer and director of the stage production.  Others in the original production included John Craven, Jat Fassett, Thomas Coley, William Redfield (billed as Billy Refield at the time), Jean (Louise) Platt, Alfred Ryder, Doro Merance, and Marilyn Erskine.
 
EPISODE #2    “REDEMPTION”    Broadcast on April 26, 1944
            Starring: Louis Calhern as Petra                Dorothy Gish as Zita
            Palmer Ward as Victor Karenin             Charlotte Holland as Masha
            Edgar Stehli as Prince Sergei               Alan Devitt as The Magistrate
            Also in the cast: Roger DeKoven, Stella Reynolds, Jane Robbins, Charles Kennedy,
            Norman Lord, Ken Osborn, Stefan Schnabel, Alix Duran, Ted Osborne and Valya Karilyova.
Based on the stage play of the same name by Arthur Hopkins, which was based on the Leo
Tolstoy novel “The Living Corpse”, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
Directed by Wyllis Cooper.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
Story:  When a young man Petra, wins Zita away from her fiance, Victor Karenin, he succeeds in wedding her hand.  But Victor gets infatuated with a gypsy girl names Masha and his duplicity leads to a tragedy.
 
            Trivia, etc.    “Redemption” had a New York premiere in 1918, and John Barrymore literally created the role of Petra, the role Louis Calhern performs in this radio drama.
 
EPISODE #3    “A SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY”    Broadcast on May 5, 1944
            Starring: Philip Merivale
            Based on the play by Clare Kummer, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
            Directed by _________________.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  When a rich financier fears that his wife & children take him for granted, he arranges A SUCCESSFUL CALAMITY to make them believe he’s lost all his money.
 
            Trivia, etc.  There is an Armed Forces Radio Service copy circulating which edited out the into and close: therefore, no full cast credits.  The original cast included William Gillette, Roland Young, Estelle Windwood, and Katherine Alexander.  Arthur Hopkins produced and directed the original production.  The original production opened at the Booth in New York in 1917, for 144 performances.
 
EPISODE #4    “THE PHILADELPHIA STORY”    Broadcast on May 12, 1944
            Starring: Katherine Hepburn as Tracy               Vinton Hayworth as Dexter
            Steven Chase as Mike
            Based on the stage play by Phillip Barry, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
            Directed by __________________.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Philadelphia heiress Tracy Lord throws out her playboy husband C.K. Dexter Haven shortly after their marriage.  Two years later, Tracy is about to marry respectable George Kittredge whilst Dexter has been working for “Spy” magazine.  Dexter arrives at the Lord’s mansion the day before the wedding with writer Mike Connor and photographer Liz Imbrie, determined to spoil things.
 
            Trivia, etc.  Hepburn reprises her stage role for this production (and yes, she also reprised the same role for the movie of the same name).  The original production opened at the Shubert in New York in 1939, and ran for 417 performances.  Others in the original cast included Joseph Cotton, Van Heflin, Shirley Booth, Nicholas Joy, Forrest Orr, Vera Allen, Dan Tobin, and Lenore Longergan.  Produced by Hepburn, Philip Barry, Howard Hughes and the Theater Guild.  Robert B. Sinclair was the director.  Katherine Hepburn also reprised the same role for the 1940 movie of the same name.
 
EPISODE #5    “ANNA CHRISTIE”    Broadcast on May 17, 1944
            Starring:  Pauline Lord as Anna               J. Edward Bromberg as Chris
            Wendell Corey as Mat                              Eva Conden as Mattie
            Also in the cast:  Hal Dawson and Joe Latham.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Based on the original story by Euegen O’Neill, and adapted by Wyllis Cooper.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  It has been 15 years since Chris has sent 5 year old Anna to live with relatives in St. Paul, and now she is coming back.  Anna needs rest and a place to stay so Chris moves Marthy off his barge.  One night, going down the coast, they rescue 3 survivors of a boat sinking.  The big strong Scot, named Matt, takes a liking to Anna and they go to Coney Island when they get back to land.  Matt decides that he will marry Anna but Chris says no – as does Anna.  Every male member of Chris’s family has died at sea and Chris wants Anna to have children and a house on land.  This causes friction between Chris and Matt so Anna sits them down and tells both of them the truth about her miserable life in Minnesota and the secret she has been carrying.
 
            Trivia, etc.  Pauline Lord reprised her roles from the original stage production, which premiered at the Vanderbilt in New York in 1921, for 117 performances.  Also in the stage production was George Marion, Eugenie Blair, and Frank Shannon.  Hopkins produced and directed the stage production.
 
EPISODE #6    “AH, WILDERNESS”    Broadcast on May 24, 1944
            Starring: Dudley Digges as Nat Miller            Montgomery Clift as Richard Miller
            Linda Collin Reed as Mrs. Miller                 Philip Coolidge as Sid
            Catherine Emmett as Lilly                            Charita Bauer as Muriel
            Dorothy Knox as Belle
            Also in the cast: Craig MacDonald, Vinton Hayworth, Gene McKoy, John Sylvester,
Robert Antoine, Richard Garrick, Tess Sheehan and Sandy Bickert.
            Based on the Eugene O’Neill classic, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Young idealist Richard Miller is selected as valedictorian for his New England high school commencement class of 1906 and intends to inject modern anti-capitalistic ideas into his speech.  His father, Nat Miller, accidentally learns of it and interrupts Richard’s speech before he can make a fool of himself.  The small town later celebrates the Fourth of July with customary fireworks, picnics and the like, with Richard spending time with his girl, Muriel McComber, who promises she will allow him to kiss her one day.  When Richard sends poems of love to Muriel, quoting the likes of Omar Khayyám and Swinburne, her father prevents her from ever seeing him again and forces her to write a letter denouncing him. Heartbroken, Richard drowns his sorrow in a local bar, drinking and smoking with a vamp called Belle, and comes home drunk.  Alcoholic uncle Sid, who is used to the effects of liquor, nurses Richard back to sobriety, but Richard still must face the uncertain punishment of his father as he worries about his future with Muriel.
 
            Trivia, etc.  The original stage production opened at the Guild in New York in 1933, and ran for 285 performances.  The original cast included George M. Cohan, Elisha Cook, Jr., Gene Lockhart, Eda Heinemann, Marjorie Marquis, William Post, Jr., and Ruth Gilbert.
 
EPISODE #7    “THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE”    Broadcast on May 31, 1944
            Starring:  June Walker as Molly              Wendell Corey as Dan
            Also in the cast:  Alexander Campbell, Edgar Stehli, Richard Garrick, Norman McKeigh,
John Ireland, Eda Heinemann, Jack Hartley, Jim Bowles, Karl Webber, Tess Sheehan,
and Gayne Sullivan.
            Based on the stage play by Frank B. Elser and Marc Connelly, which in turn was based on
            the novel “Rome Haul” by Walter D. Edmonds, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  A charming love story set on the Erie Canal in the mid-19th Century.  A farmer (Dan) works on the canal to earn money to buy a farm.  He meets a cook (Molly) on a canal boat, but she can’t even consider leaving the exciting life on the canal for a banal one on a farm.
 
            Trivia, etc.  June Walker and Eda Heinemann reprised their stage roles for this radio broadcast.  The original stage production opened on 46th Street in New York in 1934, and ran for 104 performances.  Also in the stage production was Henry Fonda, Herb Williasm, Margaret Hamilton, Joseph Sweeney, Kate Mayhew, and Gibbs Penrose.
 
EPISODE #8    “MACHINAL”    Broadcast on June 7, 1944
            Starring:  Zita Johann, Sidney Blackmer, Harold Vermilyea, Jean Adair, John Connery, Eda Heinemann, Dorothy Knox, Charles Kennedy, Hal Dawson, James MacDonald, Eugene Earl, Karl Webber and John Sylvester.
            Based on the stage play by Sophie Treadwell, and adapted for Presents by Wyllis Cooper.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  Zita Johann reprised her stage role for this radio broadcast.  Arthur Hopkins produced and directed the original stage production, which opened at the Plymouth in New York, in 1928, and ran for 93 performances.  Clark Gable was among the original stage cast.
 
EPISODE #9    “THE CIRCLE”    Broadcast on June 14, 1944
            Starring:  Grace George as Kitty                Cecil Humphreys as Clive
            Horace Braham as Lord Portiers               Kathleen Cordell as Elizabeth
            Edgar Stehli as Arnold                         Bertram Tanswell as Terry
            Audrey Ridgewell as Anna                Guy Spaull as the butler
            Based on the stage play by Somerset Maugham, and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  The original stage play opened at the Haymarket in London, England.  The New York premiere was in the same year, 1921, and consisted of Mrs. Leslie Carter, John Drew, Estelle Winwood and John Halliday.
 
EPISODE #10    “THE LATE CHRISTOPHER BEAN”    Broadcast on June 21, 1944
            Starring:  Pauline Lord as Abby              Charita Bauer as Susan
            Joesph Di Santis as Tallen                          Wendell Corey as Warren
            James MacDonald as Rosen              Sidney Blackmer as Dr. Hagget
            Helen carew as Mrs. Hagget             Elizabeth Dewing as Ada
            Based on the stage play by Sidney Howard (after René Fauchois), and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  The Haggetts are a “respectable” high-society family who have fallen onto hard times but are keeping up appearances.  To make ends meet, they are forced to take in a lodger (oh, the shame!).  The lodger is Christopher Bean, an obscure painter who shows no promise of artistic greatness.  The snobbish Haggetts all look down on Bean, tolerating his presence only for the rent he pays.  Bean’s only friend in the Haggett household is Abby, the kind-hearted cook played by Marie Dressler.  Eventually, Christopher Bean dies, broke and obscure.  He bequeaths his last painting to Abby, who treasures the entirely worthless artwork as a memento of her dear friend.

            Trivia, etc.  This play premiered at the Henry Miller in New York in 1932, and ran a total of 211 performances.  Pauline Lord reprised her stage role for this radio production.  Others in the original cast included: Walter Connolly, Ernest Lawford, George Coulouris, Beulah Bondi, and Clarence Derwent.  The June 28, 1944 radio broadcast was pre-empted by a political convention.
 
EPISODE #11    “MRS. BUMPSTEAD-LEIGH”    Broadcast on July 5, 1944
            Starring:  Estelle Windwood as Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh
            Sidney Blackmer as Peter Swallow             Josephine Hull as Mrs. DeSalle
            Catherine Emmett as Mrs. Rossin                 Elizabeth Eustace as Nina
            Susan Karin as Violet                          Ivy Trotman as Mrs. Lettace
            Blaine Cordner as Andrew Rossin             Eugene Earl as Mr. Levitt
            James MacDonald as Mr. Rossin                  Guy Spaull as the butler
            Vinton Hayworth as Jeffrey Rossin
            Based on the stage play by Harry James Smith, and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
            Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  The premiere of this stage play was at the Lyceum in New York in 1911, and ran for 64 performances.  The original cast included Minnie Maddern Fiske, Henry E. Dixey and Florine Arnold.
Zasu Pitts was originally scheduled to play the role of Mrs. Bumpstead-Leigh in this radio production, but the star asked for a postponement of her appearance.
 
EPISODE #12    “THE LAST OF MRS. CHEYNEY”    Broadcast on July 12, 1944
            Starring:  Mary Phillips as Mrs. Cheyney            Roland Young as Lord Arthur
            Also in the cast: Nicholas Joy, Kathleen Cordell, Catherine Emmett, Merle malcolm, Audrey
Ridgewell, Ivy Trotman, Francis Conklin, Neil Fitzgerald, Guy Spaull and Harold Young.
Based on the stage play by Fred Lonsdale, and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  There is a big charity function at the house of Mrs. Cheyney and a lot of society is present.  With her rich husband, deceased, rich old Lord Kelton and playboy Lord Arthur Dilling are both very interested in the mysterious Fay.  Invited to the house of the Duchess, Fay is again the center of attention for Arthur and Kelton with her leaning towards stuffy old Kelton.  When Arthur sees Charles, Fay’s Butler, lurking in the gardens, he remembers that Charles was a thief caught in Monte Carlo and he figures that Fay may be more interested in the pearls of the Duchess, which she is.  After Fay takes the pearls, but before she can toss them out the window, she is caught by Arthur who is very disappointed in how things are turning out.
 
            Trivia, etc.  Both London and New York premieres were in 1925, and Roland Young played the role of Lord Arthur in both productions, and was the only person from the original New York cast to reprise their role for this radio broadcast.  Also in the original NY cast: Ina Claire, A.E. matthews, Nancy Ryan, Winifred Harris, May Buckley, Felix Aylmer, and Helen Haye.  The broadcast of July 19, 1944 was pre-empted.
 
EPISODE #13    “THE LADY WITH A LAMP”    Broadcast on July 26, 1944
            Starring: Helen Hayes as Florence Nightingale            Edgar Stehli as Sidney Herbert
Eva Leonard Boyne as Elizabeth Herbert                        Nicholas Joy as Lord Pomerston
Catherine Emmett as Mrs. Nightingale                  Whitford Kane as Dr. Sutherland
Bertram Tansell as Henry Tremaine
Also in the cast:  Ivy Trotman, Norah Howard, Alastair Rong, James MacDonald, Herald Young,
Neil Fitzgerald, Philip Tonge and Eugene Earl.
Based on the stage play by Reginald Berkeley, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Historical figurehood Florence Nightingale plays nurse-crusader during the 19th century.  This stage play and radio drama used historical facts and figures to present the scenes listeners hear.
 
            Trivia, etc.  Edith Evans played the role of Nightingale in the original NY cast from 1931.  The stage play premiered in London two years before at the Arts Theater.
 
EPISODE #14    “THE LETTER”    Broadcast on August 2, 1944
            Starring:  Geraldine Fitzgerald as Leslie Crosby            Horace Braham as Howard Joyce
            Anthony Kemble as On Choy Sing                          Alexander Kirkland as Robert Crosby
            Eva Leonard Boyne as Mrs. Joyce
            Also in the cast: Harold Young, Alan Devitt and Bruno Wick.
            Based on the story by W. Somerset Maugham, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  The original 1927 NY cast included: Katherine Cornell, J.W. Austin, Allen Jeayes, and John Buckler.
 
EPISODE #15    “YELLOW JACK”    Broadcast on August 9, 1944
            Starring: Whitford Kane as Dr. Finley              Myron McCormick as Dr. Carroll
            William Harrigan as Dr. Reed                                  Edgar Stehli as Dr. Lazier
Also in the cast:  Larry Haines, Clyde North, Wendell Corey, John Connery, Stuart Brodie,
Olive Deering, Bert Bertram and James Tandy.
Based on the Sidney Howard stage play, and adapted for Presents by Gerald Holland.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  The story of Dr. Walter Reed’s determination to find the cure for Yellow Fever, as the epidemic continues to take the lives of many soldiers.  With other doctors believing Reed is looking toward the wrong direction for the cure, he is more determined as ever and succeeds.
 
            Trivia, etc.  Whitford Kane and Myron McCormick reprised their stage roles for this radio broadcast.  The stage play premiered at Martin Beck in New York in 1934, and ran a total of 79 performances.  Also in the NY cast were:  James Stewart, Sam Levene, Eddie Acuff, John Miltern, Geoffrey Kerr, Eduardo Ciannelli, Robert Keith, Barton MacLand, George Nash and Lloyd Gough.
This radio production was originally scheduled for July 19, but was pre-empted for August 9.
 
EPISODE #16    “THE SWAN”    Broadcast on August 16, 1944.
            Starring:  Eva LeGallienne as Princess Alexandra, the Swan
            Staats Cotsworth as the Professor                           Hilda Spong as Princess Beatrice
            Eva Leonard Boing as Princess Dominica                     Horace Braham as Prince Albert
            Cecil Humphreys as Father Hyacinth
            Also in the cast:  Norah Howard, Robert Antoine, Alastair Kyle and Guy Sorrows.
            Based on the stage play by Ferenc Molnár, and adapted for Presents by _____________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Princess Beatrice’s days of enjoying the regal life are numbered unless her only daughter, Princess Alexandra, makes a good impression on a distant cousin when he pays a surprise visit to their palace.  Prince Albert has searched all over Europe for a bride and he’s bored by the whole courtship routine.  He is more interested in the estate’s dairy than Alexandra’s rose garden.  And then he starts playing football with the tutor and Alexandra’s brothers.  Invite the tutor to the ball that night and watch how gracefully Alexandra dances with him.
 
            Trivia, etc.  “The Swan” had it’s New York premiere in 1923.  Eva LeGallienne reprised her stage performance for this radio broadcast.  Others in the NY cast were Philip Merivale and Basil Rathbone.
 
EPISODE #17    “THE DELUGE”    Broadcast on August 23, 1944
            Starring:  Pauline Lord as Sadie                          Sidney Blackmer as O’Neill
            Donald Randolph as Adam                           Edgar Stehli as Fraser
            Jack Hartley as Stratton                                                Clyde North as Charlie
            Wendell Corey as Higgins                                                Arvid Poulson as Nordling
            Based on the stage play by Hennings Berger, and adapted for Presents by Frank Allen.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  The New York premiere for this play was in 1917 with Hrnry E. Dixey and Edward G. Robinson in the cast.  Pauline Lord reprised her stage role for this radio production.
 
EPISODE #18    “JUSTICE”    Broadcast on August 30, 1944
            Starring:  Estelle Windwood as Ruth Honeywill            Whitford Kane as Coachum
            Bramwell Fletcher as Folder                         Eugene Earl as James Howell
            Anthony Kemble Cooper as Walter Howell                        Horace Braham as a defense attorney
            Also in the cast:  Neil Fitzgerald, Harold Young, Alan Devitt, Alastair Kyle and Edward Brodie.
            Based on the stage play by John Galsworthy, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  This stage play premiered in New York in 1916, six years after the London premiere, with a cast including:  John Barrymore, Cathleen Nesbitt, Henry Stephenson and O.P. Heggie.  Edgar Stehli was originally scheduled to play a featured role in this radio production, but he was unable to attend.
 
EPISODE #19    “EXCURSION”    Broadcast on September 6, 1944
            Starring:  Whitford Kane
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  This episode is one of two radio broadcasts of which a recording is not known to exist in circulation among collectors and old-time radio fans.
 
EPISODE #20    “A BILL OF DIVORCEMENT”    Broadcast on September 13, 1944
            Starring:  Zita Johann and Edgar Stehli
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Stehli is released from a mental institution who returns to his wife (Johann) and gets to know his daughter for the first time.
 
EPISODE #21    “THE BUCCANEER”    Broadcast on September 20, 1944
            Starring:  Estelle Windwood and Edgar Stehli
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  This episode is one of two radio broadcasts of which a recording is not known to exist in circulation among collectors and old-time radio fans.
 
EPISODE #22    “HER MASTER’S VOICE”    Broadcast on September 27, 1944
            Starring:  Roland Young as Ned Farrar            Frances Fuller as Queena Farrar
            Based on the stage play by Claire Kummer, and adapted for Presents by ________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
EPISODE #23    “THE PETRIFIED FOREST”    Broadcast on October 4, 1944
            Starring:  Dorothy Knox as Gabby Maple            Bertram Tanswell as Alan Squier
            Based on the stage play by Robert E. Sherwood, and adapted for Presents by __________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Idealist/loser Alan arrives at the Maple service station and falls in love with the waitress Gabby Maple.  She persuades the Chisholms to give him a ride on their way to California.  They are stopped by Duke Mantee and his gang who take the car.  Alan walks back to warn Gabby but Mantee is already there.  Alan signs over his insurance policy to Gabby and arranges for Mantee to kill him.  A posse arrives and Alan is shot in the battle.  He dies in Gabby’s arms knowing she can realize her dream of studying art in Paris.
 
EPISODE #24    “ESCAPE”    Broadcast on October 11, 1944
            Starring:  Dennis King
            Based on the stage play by John Galsworthy, and adapted for Presents by _________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  A countess, the mistress of a Nazi General, helps a man get to his mother out of a German Concentration camp before WW2.
 
EPISODE #25    “THE MALE ANIMAL”    Broadcast on October 18, 1944
Starring:  Elliott Nugent as Prof. Turner                 Sidney Blackmer as Ed Keller
Louis Hard as Joel Ferguson                                  Ann Sterrett as Ann Turner
Edgar Stehli as the Dean   
Also in the cast:  Elizabeth Eustace, Vinton Hayworth, Amanda Randolph, Peggy Conway,
George Corey, and Donald Dukas.
Based on the play by James Thurber and Elliott Nugent, adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  The trustees of Midwestern University have forced three teachers out of their jobs for being suspected communists.  Trustee Ed Keller has also threatened mild mannered English Professor Tommy Turner, because he plans to read a controversial piece of prose in class.  Tommy is upset that his wife Ellen also suggested he not read the passage.  Meanwhile, Ellen’s old boyfriend, the football player Joe Ferguson, comes to visit for the homecoming weekend.  He takes Ellen out dancing after the football rally, causing Tommy to worry that he will lose her to Joe.
 
            Trivia, etc.  This play premiered in New York at the Cort in 1940, and ran for 243 performances.  Elliott Nugent and Amanda Randolph reprised their stage roles for this broadcast.  Also in the NY cast was Leon Ames, Ruth Matteson, Don DeFore, Gene Tierney, Matt Briggs and Ivan Simpson.
 
EPISODE #26    “MR. PIMM PASSES BY”    Broadcast on October 25, 1944
            Starring:  Violet Heming as Olivia Martin              Cecil Humphreys as George Martin
            Bertram Tanswell as Brian Strange                          Edgar Stehli as Mr. Pimm
            Kathleen Cordell as Dinah                                       Norah Howard as the maid
            Ara Gerald as Lady Martin
            Based on the stage play by A.A. Milne, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  A.A. Milne was also the celebrated author of the juvenile adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, and the author of the play “Peter Pan.”  This stage play premiered at the New in London, England, in 1921.  The original NY cast included Dudley Diggs, O.P. Heggie, Laura Hope Crews, Helene Westley and Phyllis Povah.
 
EPISODE #27    “BEYOND THE HORIZON”    Broadcast on November 1, 1944
            Starring:  Aline MacMahon as Ruth                             Philip Huston as Robert
            Norman McKeigh as Andrew                                   Jean Adair as Mrs. Mayo
            Tess Sheehan as Mrs. Atkins                             Howard Smith as Mr. Mayo
            Lorna Lynn as Mary                                       Jim Bowles as Captain Scott
            Eugene Earl as Dr. Fawcett
Based on the stage play by Eugene O’Neill, and adapted for Presents by ___________.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Beyond the Horizon explores what happens when two men love the same woman and the compromises each will make to have her. Eugene O’Neill won the Pulitzer Prize for this 1920 drama.
 
            Trivia, etc.  The New York premiere was at the Morosco in 1920, and ran 111 performances.  Aline MacMahon reprised her stage role for this broadcast, but MacMahon was not in the original stage cast.  In 1926, the play was revived at the Mansfield, where MacMahon played the role of Ruth. 
 
EPISODE #28    “HOLIDAY”    Broadcast on November 8, 1944.
            Starring:  Hope Williams as Linda Seton                 Tom Rutherford as Johnny Case
            Vinton Hayworth as Nick Potter                              Edgar Stehli as Edward Seton
            Mary Patten as Julia Seton                                       Alexander Lockwood as Ned
            Elizabeth Dewing as Susan Potter                            Eugene Earl as Seton Kram
            Patricia Neighbors as Laura Kram                             John Stanley as the butler
            Based on the stage play by Philip Barry, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire’s daughter.  When her family, with the exception of black-sheep Linda and drunken Ned, want Johnny to settle down to big business, he rebels, wishing instead to spend the early years of his life on “holiday.”  With the help of his friends Nick and Susan Potter, he makes up his mind as to which is the better course, and the better mate.
 
            Trivia, etc.  “Holiday” premiered at the Plymouth in New York in 1928, and ran 230 performances.  Hope Williams reprised her stage role for this broadcast.  Others in the NY cast included Ben Smith, Donald Ogden Stewart, Dorothy Tree and Monroe Owsley.
 
EPISODE #29    “HOME CAME THE STEED”    Broadcast on November 15, 1944
            Starring:  Sidney Blackmer as Davy Crockett            Frances Fuller as Kate
            Edgar Stehli as Thimble Riggs                         Will Hare as Ned
            Barry Hopkins as Col. Travers
            Also in the cast:  Donald Morrison, Jack Hartley, Jim Bowles, Peter Graves, Michar
Artist, William Refield (billed as Billy Redfield), Edwin Cooper, Eda Heinemann,
Winfield Honey and Pat Smith.
            Based on the stage play by Edith Russell, and adapted for Presents by Charles Newton.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  This radio play, based on the stage play by Edith Russell, was the only episode of the series that was not formerly a successful stage play credited towards Arthur Hopkins.  In fact, _________
________________________________________________.  One interesting bit of casting notice: a young Peter Graves plays a supporting role in this episode, many years before he even began getting starring roles in B-class pictures during the fifties.
 
EPISODE #30    “BERKELEY SQUARE”    Broadcast on November 22, 1944
            Starring:  Dennis King as Peter Standish                       Clarence Doe as Stanley
            Mary Patten as Helen Petigrew                                  Horace Braham as Tom
            Kathleen Cordell as Kate Pettigrew                         Jean Cameron as Lady Anne
            Anthony Kemble Cooper as Throstle                       Elizabeth Dewing as Marjory
            Barry Hopkins as the Ambassador                            Neil Fitzgerald as Mayor Clinton
Eva Leonard Boyne as the Duchess of Devonshire            Norah Howard as Mrs. Bowick
            Based on the stage play by John L. Balderston, and adapted by Ethel Ann Kreppel.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  A young American man is transported back to London in the time of the American Revolution and meets his ancestors.
 
            Trivia, etc.  This play premiered at St. Martin’s in London, England in 1926, and in New York in 1929.  Leslie Howard and Margalo Gillmore was in the original New York cast.
 
EPISODE #31    “ROADSIDE”    Broadcast on November 29, 1944
            Starring: Ralph Bellamy as the Texan              Jack Hartley as the Marhsall
            Ruth Elma Stevens as Hannah Raider             Edgar Stehli as Judge Snodgrass
            Charles Dow Clark as Pat                                       John Robb as Buzzy Hale
            Junius Matthews as Ned    
            Based on the stage play by Lynn Riggs, and adapted for Presents by Ethel Ann Kreppel.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Pap Raider (G.W. Bailey) and his ripe-for-love-and-marriage daughter Hannie (Julie Johnson) are itinerants, taking their tent show through the Oklahoma Territory during the early 1900s.  Buzzey (James Hindman) tries to woo Hannie into settling down with him on his farm but Hannie yearns for someone less clownish and more romantic.  That someone turns out to be Texas (Jonathan Beck Reed), a swaggering, gun-toting, hard-drinking cowboy, who like her refuses to settle (as smartly summed up in “I Toe the Line”).  To round things out Pap’s retinue includes two not too bright young cousins, Red Ike (Ryan Appleby) and Black Ike (Steve Barcus).  The town is embodied in a threesome consisting of the town Marshall (William Ryall) who is out to corral Texas into his jail, his jailer (Tom Flagg), and the town busybody (Jennifer Allen).
 
            Trivia, etc.  Bellamy and Stevens reprised their stage roles for this episode.  Arthur Hopkins produced and directed the original stage production in 1930, at Longacre, New York, which only lasted a mere 11 performances.  The broadcast of December 6, 1944 was pre-empted by a bond drive.
 
EPISODE #32    “STREET SCENE”    Broadcast on December 13, 1944
            Starring:  Erin O’Brien Moore as Rose Moran  Horace Braham as Sam Kaplan
            Norman McKeigh as Frank Moran                            Margaret Callahan as Anna Moran
            Also in the cast: Grace Valentine, Verna Rayburn, Clyde North, Anna Karin, Raymond
            Bramley, Larry Haines, Jackie Ayers, George Sorel, John Robb and Donald Morrison.
            Based on the play by Elmer Rice, and adapted for Presents by Ethel Ann Kreppel.
Directed by Wynn Wright.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  Heartbreakingly realistic account in the life of New York tenements, and the younger generation’s desperation to get out.  Elmer Rice’s Pulitzer-Prize winning play will move you when you listen to this episode.
 
            Trivia, etc.  This stage play premiered at the Playhouse in New York in 1929, and lasted an impressive 601 performances.  Erin O’Brien Moore and Horace Braham reprised their stage roles for this radio broadcast.  Others in the original stage cast included Beulah Bondi, John Qualen, Robert Kelly, Astrid Alwynn, Mary Servoss and Leo Bulgakov.
 
EPISODE #33    “RICHARD II”    Broadcast on December 20, 1944
            Starring:  Dennis King as Richard II                    Thomas Chalmers as John of Gaunt
            Horace Braham as Bolingbrooke                          Nicholas Joy as York
            Sherling Oliver as Mowbray                                 Kathleen Cordell as the Queen
            Also in the cast:  Anthony Kemble Cooper, Stanley Bell, Burford Hampden, Bertram Tanswell,
            Dennis King, Jr., John Stanley and Whitford Kane.
            Based on the stage play by William Shakespeare, and adapted for Presents by __________.
Directed by ______________.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  King Richard II and his uncle John of Gaunt tries to convince Henry Bolingbroke (Gaunt’s son) and Thomas Mowbray (Duke of Norfolk) to settle a quarrel, wherein Bolingbroke accuses Mowbray of murdering Richard’s brother the Duke of Gloucester (Thomas of Woodstock).  Although Mowbray didn’t kill him, he could have prevented it or at least told the truth that Richard II had ordered it.  Richard II cannot calm them, so he allows them to compete in a joust, then stops the joust while it is starting and sentences the two to banishment from England Mowbray forever and Bolingbroke for five years.  Mowbray predicts while leaving that Bolingbroke will retaliate and defeat Richard II.  Therein lies the opening scenes of William Shakespeare’s tragedy of historical nature.
 
EPISODE #34    “THE BLUEBIRD”    Broadcast on December 27, 1944
            Starring:  Alastair Kyle as Tilhill             Joyce Van Patten as Mittel
            Mary Patten as Light                         Edgar Stehli as The Cat
            Catherine Emmett as The Good Fairy            Elizabeth Dewing as Happiness
            Also in the cast:  Ann Bracken, Jackie Grimes, Eugene Earl, Tess Sheehan, Margaret
            Callahan, and Don Morrison.
            Based on the stage play by Maurice Maeterlinck, and adapted for Presents by _____.
Directed by _____________.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  A Christmas novelty that playwright Maeterlinck is perhaps best known for.  A fairy play in six acts, that takes place during the holiday season, and fits wonderfully with the season, as this episode was aired two days after Christmas.
 
            Trivia, etc.  The New York premiere in 1910 for this stage play included the following cast: Margaret Wycherly, Louise Closser Hale, Irene Browne and Gladys Hulette.
 
EPISODE #35    “THE JOYOUS SEASON”    Broadcast on January 3, 1945
            Starring: Lillian Gish as Christina Farley            Sherling Oliver as John Farley
            Margaret Callahan as Terry Farley                Sidney Nesbitt as Francis Battle
            Ann Sterrett as Monica                                    Elizabeth Dewing as Edith
            Ted Jewett as Martin
            Also in the cast:  Eugene Earl, Vinton Hayworth, Doris McQuiert, Whitford Kane
and Tess Sheehan.
Directed by _______________.
            Music composed and conducted by Morris Momorsky.
            Story:  unknown
 
            Trivia, etc.  The original production of this stage play lasted a mere 16 performances at the Belasco in New York.  Lillian Gish reprised her stage role for this radio production.  Also in the original stage production were Jane Wyatt, Mary kennedy, Eric Dressler, Jerome Lawler, Alan Campbell, John Eldredge, Florence Williams, Moffat Johnston and Kate Mayhew.
 

 

 
Martin Grams, Jr. is the author of numerous OTR books, and co-author of the May 2002 release, The Sound of Detection: Ellery Queen’s Adventures in Radio, with Francis M. Nevins.
 

 

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Copyright © 2002 by Martin Grams, Jr.  All rights reserved.  Printed in the United States Of America.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the author.


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